Larix 355 



" I did not require to wait long to see the results reversed, as severe frosts in 

 June of that same year, I think on 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, when we had 9, 10, and 8 

 of frost respectively, nearly put the Tyrolese bed out of existence, while those that had 

 been cut earlier in the season (the home variety) did not suffer to anything like the 

 same extent. I am now so thoroughly convinced in my own mind of the superiority 

 of larch from home or British seed, that I have entirely discarded the Tyrolese." 



Though the seed is ripened in ordinary seasons in all parts of the country, and 

 a few self-sown trees may be found on most estates where rabbits are kept down, yet 

 our conditions of soil and climate are so unlike those of the natural larch forests of 

 the Alps, that it is useless to attempt natural reproduction with any economic 

 advantage. The only cases in which I have seen any number of self-sown seedlings 

 in the southern half of England are where a clean felling has been made of the larch, 

 and the ground more or less broken up by hauling out the logs immediately after- 

 wards. Of the seedlings which germinate, so large a proportion are destroyed by 

 frost, drought, or vermin in the first season, that the number remaining is not worth 

 consideration, and their growth is so slow for five or six years that planted trees of 

 half the age will usually be stronger. On sandy land, however, or at high elevations, 

 and especially in Scotland, it may sometimes be worth while to encourage self-sown 

 trees, but I cannot say that I have ever seen even a small area which is either 

 sufficiently or regularly stocked by self-sown larch.* In the Alps, on the other hand, 

 where the soil is covered with snow for three months or more, natural regeneration 

 is both easy and regular, and I have, both in the French and Italian Alps, seen the 

 ground covered with larch seedlings, which, taken up as late as May, when just 

 uncovered by the snow, I have brought to England when a few inches high, with 

 success. Indeed, it is wonderful how long seedlings will live if taken up when 

 vegetation is just commencing, and sent by post in small tin boxes, tightly packed 

 with a little damp moss or soil, and such trees are my most agreeable souvenirs of 

 many visits to distant countries. 



The manner in which the seed is collected in the French Alps is described to 

 me as follows by M. Surel, Inspector of Forests at Brian9on, a district which is 

 celebrated for its larch forests: "In February, before the season when the cones 

 are ripe, we choose trees of which the cones are still closed, and spread large cloths 

 round their trunks at about 10 feet from their base. When the cones open, the 

 seed falls on the cloths. It is then dried in the sun, or preferably, in order to 

 avoid excessive drying, under an open shed. The collection takes place at a 

 minimum altitude of 5500 feet, where the snow is still frozen, and the drying of the 

 seed by the sun, which in this district is remarkably strong, the thermometer rising 

 in the sun in February to 30 to 32 Centigrade, is therefore carried on under very 

 favourable conditions. Drying by the stove would give deplorable results. If I 

 were obliged to work in a climate where the climatic conditions made our practice 

 impossible, I should use closed rooms, slightly heated, but of which the air was freed 

 from moisture by chloride of calcium." 



' Prof. Fisher tells me that on old roads, and other places where the soil has been exposed, on the shores of Lake 

 Vymwy in Wales, and also on old pit banks in Dean Forest, he has seen numerous self-sown larches spring up. 



